ROCKWALL/HEATH, TX (May 11, 2014) A best-selling book shows women—including moms—how to reach their full potential. But not everyone is buying it.
Sheryl Sandberg’s call-to-action book, Lean In, provides steps we can take to “combine professional achievement with personal fulfillment.” Sandberg is Chief Operating Officer of Facebook and one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. She leans in to that challenge and says we can too.
But a new study by the Pew Research Center shows a rising percentage of women are leaning away from career-building to stay home with their children, either by choice or by circumstances. With an increase of opportunities to use our talents and earn income in a variety of ways from home, more mothers choose to forgo the stress of career building.
Motherhood has a way of making us forget about the corporate ladder. Most of us will never be COO of anything but our home and family. But our non-corporate benefits include time for things like leaning over planting beds to celebrate spring—and much more.
Personal ambition can be perilous to the soul. And when our soul isn’t right, our loved ones feel it. Resisting the desire to reach our full potential can benefit others, especially our family, though we might never make the top of the most influential list, except the one our kids could make.
For the Christian, motherhood is a holy calling, which should urge us to prayerfully lay our personal hopes and plans before God—as all believers should. Psalm 37:4 says “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” Jesus repeated that promise, saying, “Seek first thekingdomofGodand his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33).
God’s grace extends to all, to those of us who hope to excel in a larger sphere and to those whose biggest venture is a new recipe. But whatever our career inclinations, we should lean on him. He wants us to love him above all else. In return, he satisfies us with better things than any earthly rewards we could hope for.
The words of an old hymn remind us what we can gain in the here-and-now:
What a fellowship, what a joy divine, leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine, leaning on the everlasting arms.
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By Blue Ribbon News special contributor Patti Richter of Heath, a journalist who writes news and feature stories, book reviews and more for Christian publications.
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